1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless interface device and more particularly to a wireless interface device that is adapted to be interfaced to a wired local area network by way of a multiplexer which manipulates the source and destination addresses of the packets in order to be compatible with a standard protocol which can only support a single local area network (LAN) card.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Both wired and wireless LAN systems are known in the art. Such systems enable various desktop and/or portable personal computers to be connected in a local area network in order to share resources. The wireless LAN systems obviate the need to provide a direct wire connection between the various desktop and/or portable personal computers connected to the LAN. Such portable personal computers are normally equipped with a wireless LAN card and a radio interface which typically includes a spread-spectrum type radio to reduce interference.
Various network communication protocols are known. One protocol, for example, IPXODI, is a standard protocol that is normally used for communication among the various host computers connected to a LAN. In such a configuration, each of the computers connected to the LAN includes a LAN card which communicates by way of the IPXODI protocol. Unfortunately, the standard IPXODI protocol only supports a single LAN card. Thus, such wired LANS cannot be interfaced with wireless devices which would require another LAN card.